1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicle racing. More particularly the device herein disclosed relates to a method and apparatus for the identification and tracking of vehicles used to race upon a defined track.
2. Prior Art
The racing of vehicles has been a popular sport since the dawn of the motor vehicle itself. Such races generally pit a plurality of vehicles against each other to complete a defined distance around a defined track in the fastest amount of time. As a general rule, the distance is a multiple of individual lengths or laps around a track of a determined length.
A vexing problem for such racing which has also been around since racing first began is the tracking of the vehicles in the race. This is because in order to determine which vehicle in the race has finished the defined distance first or in the shortest amount of time, the total number of laps must be computed as well as the total aggregate time it took the vehicle to complete the defined distance of the race.
In the early days, spotters actually watched the cars go past the starting line and counted the number of laps completed. This system was obviously prone to human error and cheating.
In recent years, with the advent of technologies to handle the task, a number of systems have been employed to track the vehicles in the race. There are four detection methods currently used on the market for lap counting.
A first such system involves the use of lasers and has been used primarily in model or slot car racing. This system employs a beam that is projected across the track at the finish line to a receiving device that senses the laser beam striking it. When a car crosses the laser beam, it blocks the laser light from hitting a sensor on the opposite side of the track and “counts” the crossing. The detector then communicates to a counter or computer that the beam has been broken which registers the crossing of a vehicle. Since slot car racers employ individual tracks or lanes for each racing vehicle, multiple lasers can be set up across each lane, or can be set at different heights to monitor more than one car at a time. If multiple cars are used, a flag must be attached to the antenna of each car (to block the laser light) at different heights corresponding to the height of each laser. However, this system has an inherent problem in that only a limited number of cars can be run at the same time because of the spacing required for the lanes and the length of the antenna. Another drawback to this system is that the laser poses a potential hazard to the users.
Another timing system by Lapz uses infrared transmitters and receivers. When a car passes underneath a structure that holds the infrared receivers, the receivers will detect the presence of infrared light emitted from a transponder that is connected to the vehicle. However, a problem with this system is that the transponder must be mounted on the car with a direct line of sight to the receivers which may be difficult in some vehicles. Additionally, because infrared detection is used, the background light radiation (since light produces infrared waves) can degrade the performance of the system. The transponders also require power from the vehicle to which they are mounted and are relatively large. This precludes the use of this system in small scale vehicles such as the 1/64 scale ZipZaps which have small capacity batteries that cannot tolerate the extra power drain nor the extra weight of the transponder.
A third detection system for model or slot car racing from AMB also involves the use of a battery powered transponder device on each car. It has the same drawbacks relating to the size of the transponder as the previous system and the current draw which can slow the car or decrease its range.
In this system which is the standard system used by professional events such as NASCAR a wire pickup is placed underneath the track. When the car passes over the wire, the transponder's continuously broadcasting signal, broadcast on a specific frequency, is picked up by the wire and then processed by a receiver unit.
The communication is only one way in this system in that the transponder continuously emits its signal at the designated frequency allotted to the individual car, and the sensor pickup system is only used to receive the emitted signal. It is, of course, not well adapted to small battery powered or model racing due to the continuous current draw of the transceiver. Further, the required separation of frequencies on the radio band used limits the number of participants that can be tracked.
A fourth detection system from KoPropo detects the unique frequency that each radio-controlled vehicle produces. Each car uses a different frequency to allow multiple cars to be raced at a time. This system detects the unique frequency produced by a transmitter or by the motor in each vehicle. A piece of wire is put underneath the track to detect the individual frequency of each car that passes over it. Thus, the system requires no transponders if the unique motor RF transmission is tracked. However, this system can only detect a certain number of limited frequencies. The system must be customized or redesigned if the user wants to use a car that operates on a different frequency than the ones that come with the system.
In addition to the problems related to limited participant number and power drain, none of the systems noted above provide a means to remotely identify the vehicle being tracked. At best, each individual car is assigned some sort of identifier for the race which is broadcast when it passes the starting line or some other monitoring point. The identification is good for the individual race only and changes with each race. Consequently, the race participants must go through the time consuming process of registering at each race event for each race around the given track. Because each individual track has their own identifiers, it precludes having remote races with remote participants competing around different tracks since there is no common manner to identify the cars on the tracks.